Dear friends and family,
I have been asked by so many people whether or not I planned to participate in “A Day Without a Woman,” a movement in which today, International Women’s Day, many women all over the nation will avoid participating in profitable labor in a demonstration of economic solidarity for gender equality and the rights of women everywhere. Even Lady Liberty seems to be on board as last night, the Statue of Liberty went dark for several hours. (Granted, this was simply due to an unplanned power outage, but the symbolism and irony were not lost upon many of us.) Now, I would just like to say that it is not that I am not galvanized and deeply moved by this sentiment; however, I do not believe that, in my case, refusing to teach my students today would serve some greater purpose. Actually, I think that, for me, it would be counterproductive in illustrating the point of the movement. Instead, though, I would like to share a few words in honor of this occasion.
Last month, a fire was ignited in many women of America when Senator Mitch McConnell uttered the following words in his defense of Senate Republicans who silenced Senator Elizabeth Warren from speaking on the Senate floor: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” Senator McConnell couldn’t have realized that at that moment, he birthed a battle cry that would be etched in the consciousness of women for many years to come. I think that regardless of where we are on the political spectrum or how we feel about the politicians themselves, the words ring true for many women, for I believe that this unrelenting, unyielding determination is a trait that many of us women possess. In fact, the same could be said about the writer of the letter that Senator Warren was reading before she was silenced, the late Coretta Scott King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a powerful social rights activist in her own right who fought tirelessly for the rights of African Americans, women, and the LGBT community.
Additionally, I always think how ironic it is that on March 7, the eve of International Women’s Day, in Catholicism, it is the feast day of St. Perpetua, a woman in third century Carthage who was martyred for her conversion to Christianity. This young woman disobeyed not only her own father, an act that was considered to be infinitely disgraceful for a woman of this time, but she defied a law forbidding citizens to convert to Judaism or Christianity. For disregarding the demands of her society to renounce her beliefs, she was put to death. One may apply these timeless words to St. Perpetua as well: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
Today, on the morning of International Women’s Day, I cannot help but reflect on the countless women whose unwavering persistence has pioneered so many of the rights that we possess today and have struggled to clear the path for us so that we may live lives that are worth living. As I stand here on what I can only hope to be the pulse of a strong and beautiful movement, I want to thank all of these great women, both living and dead, not only our mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers, but all of our foremothers and the grandes dames whose victories impact all of womankind even today. The path we walk as women, at times, is strewn with great joy and pain alike; nevertheless, we persist…
-- Daniella Rossi
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